Journal #7433

invert-x is a little site that our good friend Ant and I have been working on. Basically, we choose one topic per week and each write a short article on it. It should be updated every Sunday (I hope!).

We started off with some opinions on the Battlefield 3 beta. Feel free to subscribe/like/whatever it is the kids are doing these days.

I agree with your point on objectives not being a big enough priority to an extent when playing solo, but it really changes drastically when you're in a decent well-communicating squad. Had some absolutely amazing games with friends, and that alone pretty much sold the game to me. For e.g. our squad won a full nerve-wrecking rush game 4v8 once, which pretty much felt like being the A-team or something. One of my best MP experiences ever.

Without a squad though, it's sometimes near impossible to push for objectives, which forces you to go into frag-mode (and even then, flank-wiping a bunch of enemies is feels ridiculously rewarding).

I also don't see your commander idea working too well - giving random players extra power over their team mates never works in MP shooters. I think there should be more to squad leaders than just the title - I've seen a suggestion to only allow spawning on the leader, which sounds like something worth looking into.

Speaking of squads, I'm surprised neither of you mentioned the moronic way they work in the beta. Not being able to create/choose your own ruins the teamplay on so many levels. I'm sure it's just a beta thing, but still - a very key component missing.

@Daub: The commander idea is something that could only be set up in a competitive or semi-professional environment. The game wouldn't need to do anything official, just one extra player on each team who isn't actually playing the game (or playing it but not participating in the action too much) who is constantly talking with the whole team (or squads or whatever), organising the attacks and whatnot. Of course I don't think anyone would actually do that, but it's fun to think about it.

To Madcow and anyone that read and enjoyed the articles: please let us know on the site! Post a comment (you don't need to register) and assign a Shine Get to whichever one you preferred. This is a project that has been brewing for quite a while now (in various forms) and I'm very proud and excited to finally have it up and running.

We'd really love to get a little community going, with some great discussions too. Spreading the word using the social links at the top of the page would really help too, if you wouldn't mind.

Further down the track, we'll be featuring new writers and a more frequent posting schedule, along with contests and various other things. For now, we'll be on a once a week update schedule (posts go live on Sunday for those in Australia, so probably Saturday for most of you).

Writing is a bit of a passion of mine, and while I don't want to do it professionally, doing stuff like this is an utter joy. I hope you'll join us and enjoy the show!

Daub, DICE have already announced that they have heard the community loud and clear on the squad management. The ability to view all squads, create new ones, and see who is lone-wolfing WILL be in the final product.

Also, for this weekend the conquest map Caspian Border has been opened up. All of the 64 player servers have unplayable lag levels unfortunately, but if you can get into one of the few 32 player servers on the map you will have an absolute blast.

2v2 dogfights with those jets is arguably the most fun that I've ever had playing Battlefield. Talk about intense. I LOVE the fact that jets appear in the spawn selection menu and you can pop right in one after you die, it really has cut down on the jet camping. Even if you sit there for five minutes waiting for a jet and ignoring your team and the objective, you might not get it because someone can spawn right in it as soon as it appears. Everyone should give it a try today before the map closes again.

All beta bugs and glitches aside, I am absolutely psyched for this game and even went out and bought a 560ti the other day just so I can play this game the way it was intended, like butter!

Anyone can add me on Battlelog, my soldier name is Legitzkrieg and I play to win. Remember guys, PTFO!